A month ago, just a month ago, this was just beginning.
Today the reality is overwhelming, Ivan Basso recalls how the first case arose, and what followed.
"In Italy we had the first problems between February 21 and 22. There was a coronavirus infection, there was some concern, but it passed the next day. However, the big scare would come right away," he begins.
And from there a story that we all know, a story of anguish and numbers that resulted in collapsed hospitals throughout Lombardy and especially the region of Bergamo, the beautiful and historic city that we have admired so many times in the "classic of the dead leaves".
Ivan Basso is spending these days at his home in Varese, thirty kilometers from Milan. He is from Lombardy, his region is the most affected by this misfortune called coronavirus.
"It is a complex situation - he admits - very complicated, we have to go back to '46, to the years after the Second World War to remember so much misfortune. The number of infected people is constantly increasing and hospitals have been collapsed for days. We have been experiencing days of vertigo".
The family? Well, so is he.
He and his family are on their way to three weeks of confinement.
We go out one at a time, just to the pharmacy and the supermarket, that's all," he says. I don't know, it's a test, a situation that pushes us to the limit. It makes us appreciate what we have, which is not little, and love our healthcare workers who are on the front line. It is a test for the country.
And it is not easy "because all of us can spread it, it is a disease that is often asymptomatic. That is why it is so important to stay at home, to be confined and to respect the rules of the authorities".
Ivan spends these days, as we say, at home with his family, his wife and four children. In that house there are all kinds of realities, no doubt, from 17 year old teenagers to five year old children: "Each one with their problems and concerns, but we are coping well. Everyone is aware of how exceptional the moment is".
An exceptionality that will give way to a new landscape, a normality 2.0: "This is a change of habits, priorities and economy. From here there will be stores that will not be able to open, others will, the sieve is being very large. The virus will also be economic, but one thing is clear: we will have to help our healthcare system more".
"My days are spent entirely at home. I try to do an hour or an hour and a half of cycling every day and I spend good times with my children. Also, we have the team with Alberto and Fran (Contador) with twenty-two people and their families employed. For us, people come first, before sport, and we have to answer for them".
Lombardy, a region open to everyone
"Our message is one of hardship, from a region that is going through a very difficult time, struggling to solve a very important problem. We want to pass on our experience and our experiences at this time, because we believe that they can be very useful for other people," says Ivan.
It's funny, not long ago he saw Bill Gates' documentary about the impact of a virus on the economy and our lives, and now this: "It's a great lesson, health is the most important thing and we have to be happy because the family is well. Everything will change a lot, among other things, the relationship between countries. In Italy we will never forget those who are helping us at this time," he says, referring, among other things, to the detachment of Cuban doctors who recently landed in the transalpine country.
And it is a shared situation because "here we talk a lot about Spain, we are very attentive to you".
In the meantime we let our imagination fly, and we go to those places that are sanctuaries of cycling and are in Lombardy: the lakes of Como and Maggiore, the Ghisallo Pass and a very special place for Ivan Basso, the "Campo dei Fiori di Varese", the most special place for the world ambassador of Gobik. 
And don't forget, when this drink passes, the Duomo of Milan, the fashion, the Città Alta of Bergamo... await us.
Texts:JoanSeguidor's Notebook
